Plus, don't miss
our first day report where we
talk Hammer, memory, performance initiatives and the inexpensive nVidia nForce
415-D.

===================================

DDR333

As we mentioned in our first day coverage,
DDR333 (PC2700) is not expected to reach volume until the third quarter of this
year when yields (the percentage of good chips to bad) should begin to exceed
30%. You might be wondering about current PC2700 DIMMs available from a few
vendors. According to a talk given by VIA's Allan Chen, these modules are based
on DDR333 DRAM parts, but placed on DDR266 PCBs. The combination yields noisy
module performance.

Mr. Chen suggests that buyers demanding
utmost system stability delay purchases for PC2700 DIMMs until module
availability occurs later this year for memory based upon JEDEC's new DDR333 DIMM
standard. This specification includes the new DDR333 PCB (Printed Circuit
Board) design.

===================================

Rambus

We also mentioned Rambus in our earlier
Platform Conference article. The intellectual property company was
demonstrating an overclocked Pentium 4 system running RDRAM at 1200MHz.

Although our conversations with Rambus have
not always gone smoothly, we talked with soft-spoken Steven Woo about
availability of 1200MHz RDRAM parts and modules. Dr. Woo told us, "We're
currently targeting late 2003 for RIMMs, and PC1200 devices would be shortly
before that."

In the past we have taken a significant role
in blocking the acceptance of Rambus RDRAM to the desktop space, largely because
Rambus has a history of making claims that are misleading or simply false.
Although our forecasts for RDRAM penetration into desktop markets remain very
pessimistic, as we have stated before, RDRAM has its applications in areas where
low pin count is paramount and high bandwidth is needed.

Currently, DDR SDRAM Pentium 4 chipsets from
VIA and SiS perform at roughly the same levels as the Intel i850. However, as
soon as dual-channel DDR SDRAM enabled subsystems reach bandwidth levels
equivalent to or greater than the i850, we expect that performance advantages
will swing back towards DDR SDRAM making RDRAM even more marginalized.

It is our belief that if Rambus would have
relied on engineers like Dr. Woo to do its marketing, the fate of the company
would likely be much different. As it stands now, Rambus remains a pariah for
many and that is a shame since some aspects of its technology are interesting.

Below is a photograph of several de-shrouded
RIMMs, exposing the underlying RDRAM devices. Thanks to its serialized nature,
RIMMs are highly configurable from a device count standpoint.

===================================

QBM

With DDR SDRAM likely topping off at DDR333
until DDR-II arrives in quantity around 2004-2005, Kentron's Quad Band Memory
has a wide open window of opportunity to gain broad acceptance.

According to Kentron's roadmap presented at
Platform Conference, QBM system availability should occur in Q3 of this year,
with modules sampling around now. Both VIA and Intel have been rumored as
potential early adopters of Kentron's technology.

QBM is fairly straightforward with
interleaved access to two DDR Banks occurring at DIMM level.

The central module enabling technology for
QBM is the QBM10 Switch.

QBM10 Switch

The QBM DIMM connector is physically
identical to the DDR SDRAM's connector. This leverages current connector
inventories and parts infrastructure. Of course, the chipset will have to
be designed to handle QBM signaling.

Prices for QBM will be appropriate for the
mass market. A 256MB PC4200 QBM DIMM is projected to cost around $100 (US) when
it appears later this year, at a time when "official" PC2700 debuts for
something over $200 for the same sized DIMM. Kentron is positioning QBM for
everything from high-end servers to video game consoles to graphics cards to, of
course, mainstream desktops.

===================================

DDR SDRAM's Low Power Secret

While the computing industry has been
boosted by DDR SDRAM's added bandwidth, it seems that it has been forgotten why
companies like Transmeta are some of this technology's strongest boosters.
Transmeta has backed DDR SDRAM because it saves power.

Transmeta's Bill Gervasi gave a long and
entertaining talk on a new initiative dubbed "ecoPC" for "efficient computing
PC." An "ecoPC" is a 1" thick, always-on device featuring Card Bus style
external expansion slots, no fans and using less than 20 Watts maximum. There is
an acute need for such devices in a world full of loud brown boxes.

One graph Mr. Gervasi delivered illustrated
the power savings the computing industry enjoys by going to DDR SDRAM and its
lower voltages.

As you can see from the graph above, DDR-II
will be even more energy efficient.

===================================

Memory Market Forecasts

Semico presented the following graphic
illustrating its market forecast for DRAM technology marketshare.

By the end of 2002, DDR SDRAM will make up
major ground against SDRAM after erupting strongly last year. As do we, Semico
sees RDRAM rapidly losing traction after this year.

For completeness, we include Rambus's own
market forecast below. Interestingly, the Mountain View, California-based IP
company sees DDR SDRAM rising to dominance even faster than Semico projects.
Rambus also sees its share of the memory market only very slowly increasing
through 2005.

===================================

NOTE:
Since this article contains many images, we are breaking it up into several
pages for the convenience of our readers with low bandwidth connections.